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Saturday, February 28, 2015

Hello there, I hope you are having a wonderful weekend. After a week at Umhlanga Rocks north of Durban we arrived in Uvongo today. I have been taking a lot of photos and will do another photo post early next week.

Today I am sharing my final page as Special Deputy for the month of February on CSI Color Story Inspiration. It has been such a privilege to be part of Debbi's team this month. I always enjoy the color challenges and finding that perfect embellishment to solve the case file. So here is my page:

Testimony: The challenge was to use "a little bit..." as part of my title. So my title is "A little bit of Sunshine" and my journaling says this: "The best kind of people are the ones that come into your life, and make you see the sun where you once saw clouds. The people that believe in you so much, you start to believe in yourself too. The people that love you, simply for being you. The once in a lifetime kind of people...people like Rina. I am so blessed to have her in my life."

I used some Lindy's Stamp Gang mist to get this perfect green flower. The little wooden owl brooch was a gift from this special friend of mine.

You can see some white splattering on the background. I used some Mister Huey's white mist.

Most of my background mixed media ended being covered up...I used a Prima stencil and some crackle texture paste and then rubbed light brown acrylic paint into the cracks. I covered the Blue Fern Studios Garden Daisies with Gesso and then painted it with pink and green Gelatos before covering it with Glossy Accents.

Monday, February 23, 2015

Late last year Kobus told me that he really, really didn't want to be home for his 60th birthday. We started planning a lovely summer holiday along the Kwa Zulu Natal coast. I have always wanted to visit Hole-in-the-Wall and we booked an overnight at the Hole-in-the-Wall hotel. We heard that the road was bad...but then surely it must be worth it? Just before we reached Umtata we turned onto the Coffee Bay road. A tar road pitted with pot holes...but playing dodgem is part of the game?

Our first glimpse of Coffee Bay...and the end of the tar road...oh my hat!

Let me just remind you that we were not driving a 4x4...

...and my eyes were closed a lot of the time. A road like this teaches you to pray.

Some comic relief.

Nine kilometers of road that took us a painful hour to complete.

I wonder if the locals know who all the sheep and cattle belong to.

After crawling over a hill...we found more road and more hills waiting.

At last we spotted Hole-in-the-Wall in the distance.

We booked in and started the 2,5km hike to the iconic landmark.

It is a garden of Eden here...absolutely beautiful.

...and there it is...The-hole-in-the-Wall. I can imagine that if the roads were better this would be a more commercialized destination.

We just sat there for a while...so relieved after the stressful road.

On returning to the hotel the local schoolchildren were playing football on the beach.

The next morning we went for another walk along the beach. These locals were catching crayfish and taking oysters from the rocks. At the moment it is breeding season for crayfish and illegal to remove from the ocean.

The day before we arrived the hotel was visited by the Dept of Fisheries and one of the hotel guests were fined for illegally buying crayfish from the locals. The fines are as high as R10 000.

This man was trying to sell these crayfish to us...and you can see that many of them are under size.

Kobus is getting good at taking selfies.

It was amazing to see all the cattle on the beach...and this old girl walked on the beach with this old girl.

This old bull was trying to challenge another herd of cattle.

It was low tide and we could walk quiet far out towards the hole.

Driving these roads makes one realize just how easy we have it....how much we have to be grateful for. We saw hundreds of children who walk for many kilometres on these dusty roads to get to and from school.

This car was driving in front of us in Umtata and I could not resist snapping it. This one is for you Louisa.

So it would seem that I got my blog reading up to date to get behind again...but for the next two weeks my focus will be quality time with my soul mate, enjoying the balmy warm Natal weather and just relaxing and enjoying the moments.

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Hallo there, I hope you are all doing well and enjoying this weekend. I finally got on top of my blog reading and feeling very happy about it...now to keep up ;-P

As I mentioned last week, I am Special Deputy over at Color Story Inspiration for the month of February and today Case File 155 is revealed. I love these challenges and found that they can become quite addictive...what is great is that you are challenged to get out of your comfort zone and to scout through your stash for those little touches that will complete the evidence part of the challenge. This week the theme is to document a stage of life. Last year while on an outing Stefan threw a tantrum that I captured (with the thought of blackmail when he is older)...these photos would be perfect for this page.

Testimony: My title is about a Tantrum phase and my journaling is written along the semi circle and reads. "We went for lunch at the Pink Fig. Stefan spotted a car and after Mamma and Oupa grew tired of pushing him around they stopped. Stefan wouldn't have any of it and threw a tantrum of epic proportions...it had the desired affect wen two young boys felt sorry for him and took over the chore of pushing him around".

Some close ups:

I used a grid design below my photo...just love the soft shades of the Melissa Francis papers. The cute little glass pebble also had birds on.

I used my favourite Kaisercraft stamp behind the photo cluster and then applied crackle texture paste through one of my new stencils. Just love those cracks.

I painted the Blue Fern Studios circle bits and the word arrow with black acrylic paint. The little bird was covered with gesso and then stamped in lilac with a prima stamp.

You know how much I love to stitch on my pages...this background paper was perfectly suited for it and then also became the focus for the journaling.

Monday, February 9, 2015

Ha...I was on top of the whole keeping up with blogging thing...or so I thought. I tried very hard to keep up to date with reading through Bloglovin...then things got busy and I skipped a day...or two...and now my unread blogs is sitting at over 200 again. I just cannot for the life of me keep up with the happenings at the Mission, living life and reading/writing blog posts.

Reality is that in just over a week we are off to the KwaZulu Natal coast for a two week vacation. My love is turning 60 and does not intend spending it at home. That means that everything admin related at the Mission must be up to date, all SARS returns done ahead of time and all payments scheduled for the time we are away. On top of that our end of financial year is at the end of February when we are still away...and I start getting heart palpitations just thinking of the "to do list".

Today I just want to share some moments captured these past two weeks.

Lukas with their two hounds.

Wynand and Nadia is married 7 years...and still so very much in love.

Luki lost his first tooth and started Grade 1 this year.

It always touches me deeply when my grandchildren start at the same school their fathers attended.

Stefan helping Oupa clean the pool.

We are so blessed to have this little man growing up in our home.

His favourite place...Oupa's chest.

Living in Port Elizabeth is wonderful. When we woke up last Sunday the weather was HOT and we decided to visit the Addo Elephant park which is only 30 minutes away from our city.

We got up close with the big animals...this photo was taken in the hide near a watering hole...and to see the baby elephants play in the mud was awesome.

A pretty flowering wild plant.

The plant that forms the staple food for the elephant was in flower...I never knew that they flowered.

At the Hapoor watering hole the elephants were enjoying the cool water.

I really managed to capture some great moments.

A warthog waiting for his turn at the watering hole.

Zebra standing close by.

Juan and Stefan started their new school this year. Siembamba is the same school Leane, Lukas and Dewan attended...and long before that Wynand and Bianca.

I had a birthday and had a wonderful friends date with my friend Janel.

If I have to tell you that this photo is the only one where all children are looking in the general direction of the camera...and it was the only photo that had all the children in focus...they are my pride and joy.

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About Me

This is my little place in cyber space. The place where I can voice my opinions and bare my soul...a place where I document the things that happen in my life that I don't ever want to forget. The place where I share my love for my darling husband, children and grandchildren. The place where I am free to share my love for my Lord and Saviour. The place where I showcase my scrapbook projects. The place that will document my life and those whom I love in the thousands of pictures that I take.